1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disk player, and more particularly to an optical disk player wherein a pickup unit ejects a tray by virtue of a driving power of a pickup motor in a read-in area without using a separate motor for ejecting, and which simplifies a mechanism of an emergency device for manually ejecting the tray, in the event of an optical disk player malfunction.
2. Description of the Conventional Art
Generally, an optical disk player is a device for playing or recording an optical disk, such as a digital video disk (DVD) or a compact disk (CD), and is largely divided into two types, one is a tray loading type in which a tray on which an optical disk is placed moves in front and rear for thereby loading/unloading the disk, and the other is a slot loading type which is inserted into a slot provided in an optical disk player for loading/unloading a disk.
Hereinafter, the tray-loading-type optical disk player will be described, being taken as an example of a conventional optical disk player.
FIG. 1 illustrates major elements in the conventional optical disk player.
As shown therein, the conventional optical disk player is provided with a frame 1a, a main base 1b which is disposed so as to be ejected/injected from/to the frame 1a, a spindle motor 2 disposed on the main base 1b for playing or recording a disk, a pick up unit 4 for reading data on the disk while moving forward and backward along a guide shaft 3 and a lead screw 3' which is provided on the main base 1b, a driving motor 5 for driving the pick up unit 4, a tray (not shown) formed on a back side of the main base 1b for safely placing the disk, and an ejecting means for ejecting/injecting the tray.
More specifically, the ejecting means includes an ejection knob 6 disposed in a front area of the player, an ejection motor 7 which is driven by the ejection motor 7, a switch 8 which controls the operation of the ejection motor 7, a cam gear 9 which rotates by being engaged with the ejection motor 7, a stopper lever 10 which operates in accordance the cam gear 9, an elastic member 11 which elastically supports the tray to be ejected when the tray is released from the stopper lever 10, and an emergency lever 12 disposed at one side of the ejection knob 6.
Now, the ejecting operation of the thusly provided disk player will be described as follows.
First, when a user presses the ejection knob 6, the ejection motor 7 rotates and therefore the cam gear 9 rotates in accordance with the ejection motor 7.
Next, by virtue of the rotation of the cam gear 9, the stopper lever 10 which fixes the tray releases the tray, thus the tray is ejected by the elasticity of the elastic member 11 which supports the tray, and then the stopper lever 10 returns to the original location.
At this time, the switch 8 senses the rotation of the cam gear 9 to suspend the ejection motor 7.
While, in case of which the disk player suddenly malfunctions, an emergency ejecting means for manually ejecting the tray is provided at a portion of the main base 1b.
As shown in FIG. 2, the emergency ejecting means is provided with a hole (not shown) provided in the front side of the main base 1b, the emergency lever 12 disposed on the main base 1b to correspond with the hole, the stopper lever 10 which moves forward and backward around a pivot 10b by virtue of the emergency lever 12, a hook unit 10a provided at a portion of the stopper lever 10 and a fixing protrusion 1c being protruded from the main base 1b to fasten the hook unit 10a.
Now, the operation of the above emergency ejecting means will be described with reference with the accompanying drawings.
First, when the user inserts an interposition, such as a wire or a pin, into the hole formed in the main base 1b, the emergency lever 12 moves to the back side of the hole by the interposition, and the stopper lever 10, provided at a bottom part of a part of the emergency lever 12, turns around the pivot 10b.
Here, in accordance with the movement of the stopper lever 10, the hook unit 10a of the stopper lever 10 is released from the fixing protrusion unit 1c of the main base unit 1b, and the tray is ejected by the elastic member 11 which elastically supports the tray.
However, the conventional optical disk player has a problem in that the elements, such as the spindle motor for rotating the disk, the driving motor for driving the pickup unit, the ejection motor for driving the tray, the switch and the cam gear, etc., are independently provided, thus increasing the manufacturing cost and the number of the motor, and accordingly increasing the size of the disk player.
Therefore, in order to overcome the foregoing problems, according to Japan Utility model No. 50558, 1993, there has been introduced a method of ejecting a tray without using an ejection motor.
FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate a tray ejecting unit portion in accordance with Japan Utility model No. 50558, 1993.
As shown therein, the tray ejecting unit is provided with a driving motor 13, a driving gear 14 connected with the driving motor 13, an intermediate gear 16 engagedly connected with the driving gear 14 by a link 15, a loading gear 17 which engages with the intermediate gear 16 which turns clockwise, a lock arm 18 which maintains the engagement of the intermediate gear 16 and the loading gear 17, a spring 19 elastically connected to one side of the lock arm 18, a rack gear 20 engaging with the loading gear 17, a thrust plate 21 for loading/unloading a disk by moving forward and backward by virtue of the rack gear 20, and a releasing portion 22 for releasing the engagement of the intermediate gear 16 and the loading gear 17.
Next, the ejecting operation of the thrust plate 21 of the conventional optical disk player will be described.
First, when rotating the driving motor 13 in opposition to the direction of the disk rotation in the disk loading operation, the intermediate gear 16 is engaged with the loading gear 17 and the engagement of the two gears 16, 17 is maintained by the lock arm 18.
Through the rack gear 20, being engaged with the loading gear 17, and a rack 21a of the thrust plate 21, engaged with the rack gear 20, the thrust plate 21 is driven, to thereby eject the disk.
While, after the intermediate gear 16 is released from the lock arm 18, when rotating the driving motor 13, the link 15 starts to rotate anticlockwise and thus the intermediate gear 16 is separated from the loading gear 17 to thereby play the disk.
However, although the above-described system may have the advantage of ejecting the disk only by virtue of the driving motor, without using the exclusive ejecting motor, when the disk player malfunctions, or when a power failure occurs, the thrust plate on which the disk is placed cannot be ejected.
In order to solve the foregoing problem, there also has been introduced a method for manually ejecting a tray in case where a disk player malfunctions, as well as ejecting the tray without using the ejecting motor, as recorded in Japan Patent No. 236860, 1990.
In accordance with FIGS. 5 and 6, the structure of the ejecting portion of the optical disk player, published in Japan Patent No. 236860, 1990, will be described.
As shown therein, under a frame 23 there are fixedly provided a motor 24, a worm gear 25, a worm wheel 26, an intermediate gear 27, a lever 28, a pinion 29, a rack plate 30, a cam 31, a first spring 32, a second spring 33 and a plate 35 with a longitudinal plate member 34 placed thereon.
The structure of the member placed on the plate 35 will be described as follows.
The motor 24 which provides the driving power to eject the disk is fixed and the worm gear 25 is coupled to a pivot thereof and engaged with the worm wheel 26.
Further, the worm wheel 26 is engaged with the intermediate gear 27 to which the lever 28 is coupled, the intermediate gear 27 is engaged with the pinion 29 and also the pinion 29 is engaged with the rack plate 30.
Additionally, there is provided the cam 31 of which an outer diameter portion 31a comes in contact with an end portion of the lever 28 which is coupled with the gear 27, when the intermediate gear 27 rotates anticlockwise.
Also, the provided longitudinal plate 34 moves by virtue of the elasticity of the second spring 33, due to the movement of the cam 31.
In the conventional optical disk player with the thusly structured ejecting unit, as shown in FIG. 7, the manual ejecting operation can be achieved by thrustingly inserting a driver or drill into a hole 37 which is provided in a front panel 36, moving the rack plate 30 to the forward direction and manually ejecting a tray (not shown), to thereby take a disk out of the player.
However, the above ejecting unit also has a problem in that, due to noises and overload according to heat generation of the gear, the moving speed of the tray cannot be uniform.